Somalia: The military stalemate

Since the failure of Operation Restore Hope, launched in December 1992 by the United States in Somalia, the Western powers are unwilling to venture into the most violent African state.

The situation deteriorated so much since the end of the Cold War and the fall in 1991 of the Somali dictator Siad Barre. Actually, it has become hard to see how to stem all this violence in Somalia.

This violence is more disturbing because it took a specific but comprehensive character, with the presence of Iraqi, Afghan, Pakistani and Iranian fighters in the Somali territory. The violence has been channelled and transformed in a guerrilla that became a way of life in the 1990s, and then after found its ideological justification with Al-Qaeda.

Today, The U.S. call for the reinforcement of the African troops in Somalia (AFRISOM) and are willing to procure funds to support them. From their part, the African leaders have pledged to send 4,000 men to reinforce the 6,000 Ugandan and Burundian soldiers already present in Somalia. However, some experts and politicians have feared the counterproductive effects of such efforts.         “The military solution has been tried and failed.       “The time has come now for dialogue”, Zakaria Mohamed Haji Abdi of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) has said. This position is shared by Roland Marchal of the International Studies and Researches Centre (CERI) in Paris, calling for the establishment of a panel of old  Muslim and Westerner politicians, to attempt a reconciliation process, involving all forces and including the Al-Shebab.    Another researcher, Emmanuel Kisiangani, from the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD), based in South Africa, believes that the international community should show its readiness to recognise any government seemed acceptable to the Somalis, regardless of the profile of their leaders, reminding that the world “must understand that the current as the past policies in Somalia have reinforced religious extremism, as well as distrust of the West…”

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